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6

11:36 pm

SPEED BUMP

Jonathan sat in his father&039;s car, dru wheel Jessica was late Halfway down the block, he could see herstill glowing She hadn&039;t even turned her lights off yet

What was she waiting for? Tonight every second counted

On the phone with Jessica this afternoon, the five of the to thethe secret hour Jessica was supposed to sneak out at eleven-thirty, leaving tiet within a mile of the spot where Cassie Flinders had disappeared Then when ht fell, they&039;d be at most a few jumps away

Dess, Rex, and Melissa were already there, which made it doubly important to stay on schedule Jenks wasn&039;t exactly the badlands, and the three ell armed with clean steel, but the spot was too far from the city&039;s center for theer&039;s protection

He looked at his watch - 11:38 "Where are you, Jessica?"

The words echoed in hison the evening news: Where is Cassie Flinders?

If Dess was right, the lost girl had slipped into the blue tihter walking around in their private world Just when he thought he understood the secret hour, it threw another curveball

Of course, it was nothing like the curveball that reality had thrown Cassie Flinders

Rex and Madeleine kept talking like shethe eclipse and wound up somewhere out of the sun&039;s reach, frozen in darkness, like the darklings were during daylight hours And once ain, and Melissa would find her, no problem All they had to do was protect her until the secret hour ended, when a blast froht or - if that didn&039;t work - the eventual arrival of sunrise would push her back into regular time

Of course, there was also the possibility that Cassie hadn&039;t wandered off - that she&039;d been taken If the darklings had actually known in advance where the blue tiht to the spot and taken her away, deep into the desert where no one would ever find her again

There was a third possibility as well: they could have sirand eyes

"Coainst the hard, cold metal of the dashboard

An endless, whispered count of sixty later, Jonathan swore, checked the rearviewcop cars, and stepped out into the cold autued Jessica&039;s house, her father&039;s latest project He was getting into gardening in a big way, she&039;d said, trying to grow all the vegetables the family ate Apparently he hadn&039;t noticed that the season was changing into fall, the ground turning cold and hard at night

Jonathan tried to step lightly on the overturned earth, wondering if Don Day&039;s gardening efforts weren&039;t just an excuse to look for footprints under Jessica&039;sJonathan cursed his Flatland heaviness; in the blue time he could have just floated over to the sill

Voices He ducked down

He could hear Jessica speak, then soh the , the voice&039;s high-pitched insistence relass

His heartbeat settled a little Probably only Beth He eased his head up to peer inside

They both sat on the bed, no parents in sight Jessica was dressed, her little sister huddled in paja her hands around frantically, as if warding off an attack of houseflies Jonathan saw Jessica glance over at her bedside clock, where the approach of ht was clearly displayed

Why didn&039;t Jessica just get rid of her? On a school night it had to be past Beth&039;s bedti himself to knock Jessica wouldn&039;t appreciate hi his presence in front of the little sister, especially on the very last night of her grounding But Beth wouldn&039;t tell her parents - Jessica&039;s sister wasn&039;t that uncool

Besides, there wereto the news, Cassie Flinders was thirteen, about the sas had taken her Jonathan re into the darkling body they had grafted to her

Of course, Cassie was no seer She couldn&039;t read the lore; the darklings wouldn&039;t bother toin the blue tis in her teeth

He knocked

Both sisters ju off mid-sentence She stared at Jonathan&039;s face in thefor a aze on Jessica

As Jonathan pushed the sash up, he heard her whisper, "I knew it!"

Jessica just stared at hiuys," he said

"Well, hey there, Jonathan," Beth said sweetly "Just dropping by?"

"Jonathan!" Jessica groaned "Couldn&039;t you have" Her voice trailed off

He climbed in and looked from one sister to the other Beth&039;s eyes were narrowed, and Jess was staring at the floor and shaking her head He sighed "Look, I&039;&039;s co important," He looked at Jessica to eht?" Beth said, her whispering only ot one ain?"

"Believe me," Jessica said "I really don&039;t"

"Listen, Beth, I only need to borrow your sister for" Jonathan glanced at the clock "Eighteen minutes I promise she&039;ll be back by then"

Jessica closed her eyes as Beth&039;s stare swung across to the clock

"Eighteen minutes?" Beth said

Jonathan sed Jessica&039;s little sister didn&039;t know anything about the blue ti you think she did "Yeah More or less"

Jessica stood, pulling her jacket froo"

"Jessica," Beth whined